[502] Exod. xxxiv. 7. [503] Comp. chap. iii. 20. [504] Comp. Ps. xiv. 9-15; Isa. liv. 5; Hos. ii. 19; Matt. xxii. 2; Eph. v. 32, etc. [505] John ii. 1-11. [506] John iii. 28, 29. [507] Col. i. 27. [508] Eph. ii. 8. [509] Rom. viii. 29. [510] 1 Cor. vi. 11. [511] Chap. xiv. 13. [512] Matt. xxvi. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25. [513] Comp. chaps. i. 3, 9, vi. 9, xi. 7, xii. 17, xx. 4. [514] Rom. ix. 5. [515] Matt. xi. 27. [516] Isa. lxiii. 3. [517] Ezek. xxxix. 17-20. [518] Ver. 9. [519] John xviii. 28. [520] The writer has endeavoured to unfold this view of Jesus on the Cross in two papers in _The Expositor_, first series, vol. vi., pp. 17, 129. [521] Chap. xiii. 14. [522] Burger _in loc._ [523] Comp. p. 297. [524] Chaps. i. 16; xix. 15. [525] Chap. xx. 15. CHAPTER XVI. _JUDGMENT OF SATAN AND OF THE WICKED._ REV. xx. In now approaching chap. xx., with its yet unsolved difficulties of interpretation, it is of essential importance to observe, in the first place, the relation of the chapter to what immediately precedes. The Seer is not entering upon an entirely new subject. He distinctly continues, on the contrary, the prosecution of a theme he had before begun. In the previous portion of his book three great enemies of the saints of God had been introduced to us,--the dragon or the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. These were the main opponents of the Lamb, in one way or another stirring up all the efforts that had been made against Him by the kings of the earth, their armies, and their followers. For a time they had appeared to succeed. They had persecuted the saints, had compelled them to flee, had overcome them, and killed them. This, however, could not continue; and it was to be shown that the final triumph remains with those who have suffered for the sake of righteousness. In chap. xix. we have the beginning, but not the close, of this triumph. Of the three great enemies only two--the beast and the false prophet--perish in that chapter. The destruction of the third is reserved for chap. xx., and is effected at the tenth verse of the chapter. The verses following then describe the judgment of those who had listened to these enemies, but who, though defeated, or even killed,[526] or devoured by fire out of heaven when in their service,[527] had not yet been consigned to their doom. Thereafter nothing remains, in order to complete the triumph of Christ and His saints, but that death and Hades shall also be removed from the scene and cast into the lake of fire.